ASSIGNMENT TITLE

BY: Nicholas J Toth

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES (ENVL 4300)

SPRING 2021

STOCKTON UNIVERISTY
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND GEOLOGY PROGRAM
Instructor: Dr. Tait Chirenje
Introduction
The final step of the scientific method is for scientists to communicate their findings. Scientists
need to be able to communicate their findings with other scientists as well as the general public.
To do this scientists need be able display their data and findings in a clear manner. One way
that scientists could go about representing their data is by using GIS, or geographic information
systems. These systems are useful as it allows scientists to display a lot of information at once.
This can be done by using points, lines, and polygons. Points are used to notate specific GPS
coordinates. Scientists can use points to mark specific locations on a map and allow others to see
exactly where data was collected. Lines are used to show shapes such as roads, rivers, or
streams. Objects like roads are too large to be depicted as points but are to small to be depicted
as polygons. Polygons are the third and largest feature used in GIS. Polygons are used to
represent a large area. These areas could range in size from the size of a small town or to the
size of a state.

Methods
In part one of this lab students were instructed to use open Arcmap. From there students right-
clicked the layers and went to properties. In properties students were instructed to coordinate
system and change the coordinate system NAD 1983 (2011). Students did this by clicking the
folder that said Geographical Coordinate System, the folder that said North America and finally
the folder that said USA and Territories. It was here that NAD 1983 (2011) was located.
Students then added a worksheet that contained data about the students and changed the
coordinate system of the worksheet the same way as they did the layer. Students then exported
this work sheet by clicking the file they just added and selecting data. Students then selected
export data and saved the data as a shapefile. This was the file they used to in the final graph.
The students were also then instructed to add data that contained a shapefile of New Jersey’s
counties. This was done by going to the add data and adding the New Jersey county shapefile
from the faculty course files. Students were then instructed to join the county map shapefile and
the student addresses shapefile together. This was achieved by going to the analysis tool and
then to spatial join tool. The students were instructed to show the variation of the number of
students in each county. This was done by going to properties and then to symbology. Students
then went to Value Join_Count clicked the Quantiles section and then the Graduated colors.
Students then selected a color scheme of their choice. Students went to properties and then to
charts. There they selected bar graphs and used the arrows to select the categories they wanted
to be displayed for each student. In the final step of this activity students went to the county
layer and selected properties. From there students went to labels and selected COUNTIES. This
labeled each county by its name.
In activity 2 students collected ten GPS points around Lake Fred form the NJDEP website and
put the information in an excel file. To do this, students were first instructed to right-click on the
layers tab go to properties. In properties students were instructed to go to coordinate system and
change the coordinate system to NAD 1983 (2011). The students were then instructed to
download the Lake Fred shapefile from the facility course files. Students accessed the t-drive
and then the NAMS folder. Students then accessed the CHirenjt file and scrolled to the ENVL
4305 file. They then added the Lake Fred shapefile. Afterwards students added their added
their data file that contained the data they retrieved form the NJDEP. Students then exported this
file as a shapefile as they did in the first exercise. Students then clipped the Lake Fred shapefile
and the shapefile with GPS points together.
In activity three students created a graph of their home town and mapped out known
contaminated sites and groundwater locations. Students started by right-clicking on the layers
tab. Students then went to properties. In properties students were instructed to change the
coordinate system to coordinate system NAD 1983 (2011). Students then added shapefiles from
the faculty course files. Students added NJ County shapefile, NJ Municipalities shapefile,
Known Contaminated Sites List (KCSL) shapefile, Roads shapefile, Contaminated Ground
Water (known extent, CKE) shapefile, and State of New Jersey Boundary Shapefile. Students
used the Geoprocessing tool to clip KCSL, CKE, and Roads shapefiles to their municipal
boundaries. Students then created a new layer and copied NJ County shapefile into the layer.
The students then right clicked on the NJ County file and went to properties. In properties the
students highlighted their home county. Students then created a third layer and copied their
municipality and New Jersey County Shape files into it. Students then selected their county and
created a new shapefile based off of the selection. Students then clipped their municipality shape
file to their home county shapefile.
In activity four students were instructed to go on google earth pro and create six polygons of
grass areas on the Stockton University Galloway campus. Students did this by going onto google
earth pro and creating a new folder under Temporary folder. Students then added polygons by
selecting the polygon tool and tracing the perimeter of the area they wanted to select. Students
then saved the file with their polygons as a KMZ file. Students then opened this file in Arcmap
by going to the windows tab on the tool bar. Students clicked where it said search and typed
KMZ into the search bar. This brought students to a list of suggestions. The first suggestion was
a KMZ conversion tool. Students selected this tool and selected the file with their polygons to be
added as a shapefile in Arcmap. Students changed the coordinate system of the layer by right-
clicking on the layers tab. Students then went to properties. In properties students were
instructed to change the coordinate system to coordinate system NAD 1983 (2011). The students
then did the same thing for their polygon shapefile. For the final step students added a basemap
to their layer.
Figure 1.1

Students per New Jersey County & Additional Information

ENVL 4300 Spring 2021

µ SUSSEX

PASSAIC

BERGEN

WARREN MORRIS
Legend ESSEX
HUDSON
Student Information
UNION
15
HUNTERDON SOMERSET

F__of_cars
MIDDLESEX
Pple_in_Hs
F__of_TVs
MERCER
F__of_pets MONMOUTH

Students per County

Join_Count
0
1
BURLINGTON OCEAN
2
CAMDEN
3-7
GLOUCESTER
8-9
SALEM

ATLANTIC

CUMBERLAND

CAPE MAY

0 5 10 20 30 40
Miles

Note. In this figure shows the number of ENVL4300 Spring 2021 students in each county. The
figure also illustrates the number of cars, people that live in each household, number of TVs in
each house, and the number of pets in each house. The largest number of students reside in
Atlantic and Ocean County. Both of these counties had 8-9 students. Every household at least
one TV and car with many households having more than one of each. (NJDEP, 2021).
Figure 1.2

Lake Fred Data Points for Water Quality Collection

µ $ $ $

$
$
$ $
$

Miles
0 0.05 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Note. In this figure data points are marked around the main body of water of Lake Fred. These
points were randomly selected. Some of the points appear to be in the lake and further away
from shore. This occurred after transferring to the requested coordinate system. Of the ten points
shown about the ones five that are the closest to the edge would be the best to use for data
sampling as they are not in the lake. (Find google maps coordinates, 2021) (NJDEP, 2021).
Figure 1.3

Spotswood NJ, Known Contaminated Sites and Groundwater with Roads

µ
Location of Spotswood
in Middlesex County

Location of Middlesex County

in New Jersey

Legend
Known Contaminated Sites
Roads
Miles Known Contaminated Ground Water
0 45 90 180 270 360

Note. In this figure depicts the town of Spotswood which is located in Middlesex County. There
are nine different known contaminated sites within the town of Spotswood. Most of the sites
above are located alongside of roads. There are no known contaminated groundwater sites in
Spotswood. This map also depicts the location of Middlesex County in the state of New Jersey
and the location of Spotswood in Middlesex County. (NJDEP, 2021).
Figure 1.4

Grass Fields on Stockton Galloway Campus

Source: Esri, Maxar, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics,

CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS
User Community, Esri, HERE, Garmin, (c) OpenStreetMap
contributors, and the GIS user community

Note. In this figure six polygons show grass areas on Stockton University Galloway Campus.
Google Earth Pro was used to create the polygons used to highlight the areas of grass on campus.
(NJDEP, 2021).
References

NJDEP. (2021). Official Site of The State of New Jersey. NJDEP | New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection. https://www.nj.gov/dep/.

Find google maps coordinates - fast and easy! (2021).

https://www.mapcoordinates.net/en.